Blackberry Development Talk

RIM Stepped Back; National Security Agencies to Get Lawful Access of the BlackBerry Messages?

Aug 13, 2010 Blackberry Developer, News

Finally, it’s a breathing moment for the BlackBerry users in India.

The deadlock between the Govt. of India and Research in Motion (RIM) has got over with RIM stepping back to provide Indian national security agencies a lawful access to the encrypted message and the BlackBerry messenger services as well, reported by CNN-IBN.
The decision, from the Canada based telecom giant, came dramatically, hours after the Indian Government has announced that BlackBerry services will be blocked in India after 31st of August unless the national security agencies get a lawful access to the BlackBerry messages.
Indian government was demanding for the same on a ground of national security and increasing terrorism while RIM, so far, has kept on denying any access to any one. In fact, RIM earlier has announced that even they can’t access the encrypted messages as they are transmitted through a super-secured network. But after a continuous rejection from several countries & few financial institutes, now RIM has stepped back.
According to highly placed sources, the company has offered security agencies an already existing tool which allows them to access the plain text on encrypted BlackBerry messages. The company source has also informed the media that a tool is under development to give easier and lawful access to the security agencies across the globe.
However, BlackBerry is not setting up a server in India, according to CNN-IBN.
But would the security agencies bother much of not having a local server, if they can access the encrypted messages?
Earlier, RIM has skipped a crucial meeting with the the Government of India along with Vodafone and Airtel, the BlackBerry service providers in the country. But this time they had to step back.
Obviously RIM does not want to loose its market in India. However this decision has resulted in mixed reactions all over. BlackBerry app development industry must be very happy with it.
It’s worth a mention that now at least other governments & financial institutes in other parts of the world, like the EU Commission, Standard Chartered Bank, France, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt, Lebanon, Indonesia, Algeria etc., can also settle down with the newly found solution over the security concerns.
However, this was the least RIM could have done, after facing a dip in the share market and a tough competition from the rivals like Apple’s iPhone & Google’s Android.

Tags: blackberry, BlackBerry Messenger Services, Encrypted messages, Govt. of India & BlackBerry, India, RIM